Righteousness Based on the Law

“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.” -Romans 10:5

Here Paul begins to explain his assertion in verse 4, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes by contrasting two approaches to attaining righteousness—the first is based on law observance (vs. 5) and the latter (vs. 6) based on faith in Christ.

Paul quotes Moses in Leviticus where he is teaching the people what the Lord would require of them to enter the promised land and remain part of the covenant community. As most scholars agree, for Israel, this promise of life for those who “do” the commandments extends naturally to eternal life as well. For Israel, there is not the kind of distinction between life in our natural state and life in our eternal state as some evangelicals have attempted to create. This means the focus for Israel is almost always on the natural state of things.

Moses had written in Leviticus 18:5, “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.” What Moses is telling Israel is that the Lord has commanded that every person who obeys the commandments (in their entirety) will live by them. And Paul, by quoting Moses, is saying that in order to attain the righteousness of the law, one must fulfill every part of it. And since all men at all times have always come short of this obedience—Israel is Paul’s example—it would be foolish to pursue the law as a means of salvation.

The other kind, as we shall see in verse six, is a righteousness based on faith that assures a person will live into the eternal state.